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Book Reviews

Finding Your Calling: Collaboration

Here’s some great news. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is enormously blessed with
unique gifts, talents, skills, circumstances, and abilities. It is a profound
joy in life to express, exploit, expand upon, and share those gifts. Not only
is it a joy, it is also the key to achieving success.

But wait, there is even better news. Everyone, even you and
I, are also blessed with flaws, blemishes, shortcomings, weaknesses,
inadequacies, and holes in the brain.

How is that good news?

It is good news because it means none of us can “go it
alone.” We are forced (blessedly so) to collaborate with others in order to
become successful. We must find someone who zigs when we zag, someone who is
strong where we are limp, someone whose unique strengths complement and add
power to our distinctive strengths.

In my entire business career, the most fun I have ever had
was being a part of a team that was creating something great together. And
where I suffered most was when the team soured and members turned on each
other.

I have learned some important principles that must be
adhered to at every step so that the collaboration remains on that most
powerful, most enjoyable, most progressive level. (This may not be a complete
list. It is just all that I can think of at this moment.)

1. For maximum success, everyone must have the utmost
respect, love, tolerance, patience, and trust for everyone else. And everyone
must feel those things coming to him or her from everyone else.

2. Whenever “cracks” in the group coherence begin to show,
they must be fixed immediately until Principle #1 reigns supreme. The fine feeling level must be protected above all else.

3. Talking behind another’s back is prohibited unless of
course one is expressing love, joy, appreciation, admiration, and awe for that
person.

4. There is no such thing as a bad idea. Frivolity, coming
out of left field, and/or talking off point should never be discouraged or put down in a way that makes the frivolous
left-fielder feel bad. The more comfortable everyone is, the greater the
creativity that will occur. Each person should feel absolutely comfortable
before, during, and after making a boneheaded suggestion. There is a chance that so-called boneheaded suggestion contains the seeds for a huge success.

5. The group should not move forward until everyone is
comfortable with the choice. If someone is not, then that person should never
be made to feel bad that he is holding things up or being stubborn. Sometimes,
a lone holdout can convince an entire group to come to his point of view. Frequently,
however, a solution emerges that synthesizes all sides and is infinitely better
than any of the original sides.

One of the best experiences I ever had was collaborating
with an artist friend on the illustrations for my book. When I mentioned to Lawrence my desire to have my book illustrated, I had no idea that he would want to do
such a thing. While I had huge admiration for Lawrence, who I had known for 30
years, I had only been exposed to his formal artwork. I wanted the
illustrations to be loose and outrageous and Lawrence’s
art was anything but. However, I agreed to give him a try but inside I was
worried that if the illustrations did not turn out to be what I wanted, I would
not have the heart to tell him.

Anyway, I vividly remember our first session together. It started
out very stiff and polite. When Lawrence would come up with a drawing idea that I didn’t care for, I never expressed
disapproval; I just sat awkwardly in silence. When one of my ideas didn’t go
over too well with Lawrence, he also
would remain silent.

Eventually, someone’s idea would spark the other who would
suggest an improvement. That improvement would then inspire the originator to embellish
it even more. And back and forth it would go, creativity flowing wildly. Inevitably an idea would
escalate until we were both shrieking with laughter. But it never ended there.
Hours later, one would call the other for an even better improvement and the
laughter would continue. My wife, who had been observing us, remarked that if
writing a book was this much fun, that she was going to write one too. A few
days later she started her cookbook.

The illustration phase stretched over five months. Each day
got more and more creative, outrageous and hilarious. The process gave birth to
new characters and funnier situations. There is one particular cartoon that
made us laugh uncontrollably off and on for two whole weeks. In fact, we don’t
even care if anyone else thinks it is funny. We still chuckle over it.

Once the drawings were complete, we added Evgeny to the mix.
Evgeny is a computer genius who did the book’s layout. Lawrence sat to Evgeny’s left and I sat on his right and all three of us peered intently
into the computer’s monitor. I explained where I wanted each illustration to be, Lawrence supplied his aesthetic
direction, and Evgeny expertly tickled the keyboard to make us all happy. It
was so much fun that I literally could not wait for the next session. In all, an
incredible amount of love was poured into that book and I think it shows.

The biggest lesson for me was the incalculable value of
collaboration and what it can achieve if the collaborators are at ease and inspiring
each other.

Interestingly, I think it is starting to happen to me again
on another book with another friend. I’m beside myself with excitement. Nothing
can stoke your passion and creativity more than collaborating with another
person whose passion and creativity are being stoked by your passion. The whole
thing is the opposite of a vicious cycle. It is a delicious cycle.